State sued over voting machine picks

BY WILLIAM TAYLOR     The Baton Rouge Advocate    12 March 2005

A voting machine company filed suit Friday challenging its exclusion from the competition for a $49 million state contract.

The lawsuit against the Secretary of State's Office is the latest move by Diebold Election Systems Inc. of McKinney in an effort to get its machines reconsidered.

State Purchasing Director Denise Lea ruled last week that her office had no authority to intervene.

"It's not unexpected," First Assistant Secretary of State Al Ater said of the lawsuit.

"Everyone here pretty much felt it was a business decision, a business action they might take," he said. "They are trying to make sure their rights are preserved."

Diebold, one of the nation's leading voting machine suppliers, contends the state wrongly found the company's machines didn't meet state standards while certifying other machines that didn't meet the standards. The lawsuit also claims state rules weren't followed in the adoption of new standards for 2005.

Ater said he expects the state's actions to withstand scrutiny.

"I am very comfortable that what we did was very, very fair; very, very thorough and very much in the best interest of the state," he said.

Louisiana must replace about 5,000 lever-style voting machines that do not meet federal standards by the time federal elections roll around in 2006. The federal government is paying for the machines.

The Secretary of State's Office concluded only three of eight voting machine vendors met both state and federal requirements.

The office certified machines from Advanced Voting Solutions, Elections System and Software and Sequoia Voting System.

Machines from Diebold, Accupoll, Populex, Hart Intercivic and Liberty Elections System were excluded.